We love our grandchildren, children, parents, spouse, at least until or unless that love is betrayed, disrespected or trampled to death. Those bonds are so strong in most families that they sometimes gets distorted to something called love that is really more control, fear or a need for someone else's choices to reflect supposed honor on ourselves.
And if all that isn't so fraught with challenges and potential failing, now God says to love our neighbors as ourselves. I KNOW God loves my neighbors, but surely God know how hard some of those neighbors are for me to love! And sometimes they have caused pain and even injury and death to people I love. It feels disloyal to love anyone who could do that.
But remember this, our sin is the reason that the Son of God died a hideous, public death heaped with scorn and mockery. Yet, the Almighty and sinless God still loves us, just as we are, wherever we are in our understanding of God--angry atheist, disinterested agnostic, dismissing adherents to other religions, tentative seeker, hypocritical church member or humble follower well aware of our own shortcomings. I believe this makes God a valid stakeholder in this discussion.
For the world, loving others like they are our fellow children of God, is just confusing. And for many in the church it is distasteful, for they would prefer to love only those they perceive to be like themselves. But for God it is essential, not for the good we do others, but the harm we would otherwise do to ourselves.
And you might keep this mind: when you hate another they often don't notice and if they do they just think you are odd or mean-spirited. (Unless of course you have morphed into a stalker.) But we know that love is more powerful than fear, hate or anger, because when we act in love and kindness to another it not only blesses us (regardless of the response of the person being loved), but is often noticed and appreciated, opening doors to reconciliation, redemption and power that no hate can overcome.
Oh, and we don't have to do this alone: Holy Spirit of God, teach to love ourselves, our family and friends and, according to the very clear example You give us, teach us to love our neighbors, even the most challenging ones. AMEN
You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD. Leviticus 19:18
And if all that isn't so fraught with challenges and potential failing, now God says to love our neighbors as ourselves. I KNOW God loves my neighbors, but surely God know how hard some of those neighbors are for me to love! And sometimes they have caused pain and even injury and death to people I love. It feels disloyal to love anyone who could do that.
But remember this, our sin is the reason that the Son of God died a hideous, public death heaped with scorn and mockery. Yet, the Almighty and sinless God still loves us, just as we are, wherever we are in our understanding of God--angry atheist, disinterested agnostic, dismissing adherents to other religions, tentative seeker, hypocritical church member or humble follower well aware of our own shortcomings. I believe this makes God a valid stakeholder in this discussion.
For the world, loving others like they are our fellow children of God, is just confusing. And for many in the church it is distasteful, for they would prefer to love only those they perceive to be like themselves. But for God it is essential, not for the good we do others, but the harm we would otherwise do to ourselves.
And you might keep this mind: when you hate another they often don't notice and if they do they just think you are odd or mean-spirited. (Unless of course you have morphed into a stalker.) But we know that love is more powerful than fear, hate or anger, because when we act in love and kindness to another it not only blesses us (regardless of the response of the person being loved), but is often noticed and appreciated, opening doors to reconciliation, redemption and power that no hate can overcome.
Oh, and we don't have to do this alone: Holy Spirit of God, teach to love ourselves, our family and friends and, according to the very clear example You give us, teach us to love our neighbors, even the most challenging ones. AMEN
You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD. Leviticus 19:18
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